An Olympic finalist at 5,000m and a former European indoor 3,000m champion, Cragg was delighted with his excellent half-marathon debut in New York where he placed seventh, in 61 minutes and 58 seconds.

Cragg's time was third only to Martin Fagan's national record of 60:57 last year after he broke John Treacy's record of 61 minutes flat.

Kenya's Peter Kamais won in New York in 59:53, in a race, where Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, who was with him up to eight miles, stopped at the nine-mile mark after reportedly suffering an asthma attack.